In today's readings, we catch a glimpse of what actual conversion looks like. And today being Saturday, the day we usually dedicate to the Mother of God, our Mother, I would like to remind all of us of the importance of the relationship that we ought to be cultivating with our Blessed Mother through things like the Holy Rosary, through spending time with her, even in front of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. What better moment to spend some time with Our Lady, our Blessed Mother, who is continually trying to help us on this road to true conversion, true change within, within our hearts.
Notice that in the prophet Isaiah, from which we get today's reading, the 58th chapter, he speaks of social justice, almsgiving, Sabbath observance. And then in the Gospel of Luke, our Lord speaks about conversion, and he calls Saint Matthew Levi. But underneath both of these readings is the same divine question: what does real conversion actually look like? So from the first reading from the prophet Isaiah, we see that conversion does not stop at ritual. Ritual is the means. But conversion is actually a repair in some relationship between God and between our fellow brothers and sisters. Because the prophet Isaiah was speaking to people who were already engaged in fasting, praying, and observing religious practices, but they were still oppressing each other, accusing each other falsely, speaking maliciously of one another, and neglecting the hungry in their midst. In other words, they were trying to relate to God while refusing to repair their relationships with their neighbor. So God says, “Bestow your bread on the hungry, satisfy the afflicted” (Isaiah 58:10). And then notice the extraordinary consequence: “You shall be called the repairer of the breach” (Isaiah 58:12). So conversion is more about becoming someone who repairs what sin has broken in society, in our relationships, in community, in the covenant itself, but most importantly, what sin has broken within our very selves, how it robs us of a conscience that is at peace, a state that we call in the good grace of God. And so conversion, turning back to God, helps to repair the division that there is within us, and our division from one another, and it reconciles us to God. So it reconciles us to God and it reconciles us to the Church. So true fasting is not deprivation for its own sake. It is meant to help us restore communion.
Now, my brothers and sisters, our Lord goes to Matthew, precisely the person they never would have expected him to go to, the sinner, the tax collector, he who was considered a traitor of the people. And he went to Matthew because Matthew, although he had lost his way, nevertheless was a beloved son of God. And whereas we discard those whom we deem traitors, liars, deceivers, robbers, murderers and wish to annihilate them, where we think that a world without them would be a better world, God does not think as we do. God wants to salvage. He wants to restore. He wants to save every one of his sons and daughters. So Matthew becomes, through the grace of God and his mercy, the one who stops oppressing his own people, the one who leaves unjust gain, the one who now shares his bread with those in need. But what is the very next thing that he does after being called by Jesus? “After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he left everything and followed him” (Luke 5:27–28). He gives a banquet. The man who once took now gives. The breach is being repaired.
So, my brothers and sisters, let us embrace, with the help and the assistance of our dear and most beloved Mother Mary, true conversion. As she beckons us to become more and more aware of where prayer, fasting and almsgiving leads us, to true conversion. In looking after one another, we become more aware of our identities as sons and daughters of God. And may Almighty God, through her intercession, bless you today in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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